Bankrupt Entitlements

Every year the trustees for Social Security and Medicare issue a report on those programs' finances. Last year's report was bad, but the 2011 report is even worse.

The trustees concluded, quote, ”Projected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable.” That's a nice way of saying that they're going broke.

Lots of politicians are promising that they won't touch those programs, because they don't want to lose the votes of senior citizens. But the report shows that making them untouchable just guarantees they will go bankrupt.

Only major changes would avoid that—like The Heritage Foundation proposes in its new Saving the American Dream plan. It focuses the benefits on those who truly need them, makes the programs stable, and doesn't raise taxes.

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